Cloud off to Business

This was done in 2021 and I’m not sure why I didn’t share it then as I shared it elsewhere.
Here’s what I said at the time:

“This was done last night on stream sort of as a warm up for the true masterpiece.

What ended up happening after is sketching a series of legs, trying to get perspective to work and sketching a “turtle” before the stream had to end early due to technical issues. As such, here is a piece that is not necessarily a masterpiece, but merely hints at greater things through the examination of something placed in a relatable context.”

Despite the silliness, the above is true (and “Turtle” ended up shared and is viewable here). The plan was to work on a specific idea which I started working on after this. What I realised after this image and during working on that idea was that, in order to pull it off I’d need to improve quite a bit.

I hope you enjoy.

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Blind Idiot God: Voice of the Structure

One listen for this one.

I hoped more for imagery more than describing the song and this ended up doing both.
I feel like I was too anchored in a sense but I think the result is okay. This is really rough but it gets the song’s atmosphere across well in places.

Blind Idiot God’s “Voice of the Structure” is from their album Before Ever After.

I hope you enjoy.

Something lurks and looms in the nothingness, revealing bits of itself here and there. Brief flashes and rising and falling, and smooth. Soon a buzzing comes forward, almost as a continuation, then disappears. Then it comes back and lasts longer, holds more space. A glimpse of a swarm arrives and also disappears and for a moment all that is left is a low rumble.

The swarm returns almost as waves and more sound comes in and it seems to congeal and become harsh for a brief moment before disappearing into the low rumble. The rumble roils and churns and moments seem to try and pull out of it and escape, and much pours on out and upward before becoming subsumed by the nothingness. The rumble remains.

Brief murmured cracklings sound off here and there, more attempts to escape but they don’t last. A fractured and fragile ringing comes out as sounds wail in the distance. The sounds seem to want to return to a form of presence but they can only lurk. They change and they claw but it is ineffectual and with one movement what is left is enveloped and the song ends

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Waves on Both Sides

This is kind of a follow-on from this photo. When I took the first one the conditions were different and I decided I’d go back another day and see if I could get something better. I ended up with something different and that’s nice as there’s now this contrast of sorts.

I hope you enjoy.

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Deniz Akbulut: Imprisoned

One listen, though an early restart as I was trying to remember a particular word.
I think this covers the song well enough, though it does lack a bit in detail. What I wrote feels vague and directionless, but if you were to listen to the song and read what I wrote I think it’d make sense.

Deniz Akbulut’s “Imprisoned” is from the soundtrack for CrossCode, CrossCode (Original Game Soundtrack).

I hope you enjoy.

Ticking away and soon a hopelessness riding on brief moments of despair come in. Something clicks away like cogs for a moment before woodwind approaches and follows what is established. A slowness through the sounds permeates.

Perhaps a sense of reflection eventually arrives. In this new moment there’s also a sense of hope, of moving forward, of breaking free but it is a moment among a lowness, and the clock keeps on ticking. It keeps on ticking and it’s a held moment before a return to the beginning, but it doesn’t last and soon all fades out and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1305: Wind, Heat

I started this off with some sort of thing that was about how it seems like there is no wind but there are things that indicate that there is wind and I scrapped it because I didn’t see much purpose in what it was that I was writing.

Actually I scrapped it because I had nothing to follow on from what I’d written and I spent too much time thinking about how to continue whatever it was that I was saying.

Anyway, I wonder what the wind is doing. There’s a large tree that I can see from my window and its branches are swaying with varying vigour, but the dryness of the sunlight makes the space feel like there is no wind. I guess that means that there’s no real wondering as I can clearly see that the wind is moving about, or moving things, but you know.

The heat is on today and maybe it will push back the wind in some way. Maybe the wind will not be cool and instead just be blowing hot air and there will be no reprieve from the harshness of the sun. Shade will be desired but it will be in short supply. Due to the continual removal of vegetation the shade will probably not help too much either and so heat will creep in at every point it can and it will hold grip and we’ll just have to deal with it because that’s the way it is.

Soon I will be out there and I will do what I can to stay in the shade and avoid the heat, and maybe I’ll follow the wind, or at least follow where I assume it is moving. I don’t want to be “one with the wind”, but I want to feel as though I am moving with it and I am following it as it moves around me. I don’t quite think I can do that due to where I’ll be going and how linear that location is, so to speak, but I can still try. I can pretend and I can hope. I can follow an idea of the wind.

The wind appears to be varying in strength and I’m not surprised as that’s part of what it does, so I don’t know why I just wrote that out as there are probably better things that I could say, but sometimes you think about these things and you don’t think about what you’re saying and so… yeah. The wind is and it’s worth paying attention to, and so many other things also are. For now it’s out there and I’m in here and soon I’ll be out there and I’ll be among the heat that the wind will be pushing around and there won’t be enough shade but it is what it is and it’s not fine, but at least I’ll be there among it, but I can’t help but think that it could always be so very much better.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:08:38

This one is okay. I feel like it’s two bits of different writing smashing against each other and creating a result that’s scattered.

Written at home.

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Unwelcome Bird

Here’s a photo involving a bunch of silver gulls trying and succeeding to get another one to go away.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-sixty-ninth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “On the Edge“.

The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:

Week 1 – Tina

Week 2 – Patti

Week 3 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 4 – Amy

Week 5 – John Steiner

Week 6 – Sofia Alves

Week 7 – Anne Sandler

Week 8 – Donna

Week 9 – Guest host

Patti is curating this one. The next is curated by Leya.

I recommend participating in the challenges as they provide a fun way to interpret theme. If not participating, then at least you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1304: Walking, Still, Motionless

A long day pressed against an unyielding greyscale landscape, and it seems to go hard. It seems to go hard and grow harder, more intense, and yet it is dull. It is dull and colourless.

I am among its streets, its paths. I walk along and I move through a crowd. I become parts of crowds as I leave others and I weave around people. I weave through the space and I am in a continuous shade. I find my space crowded and filled and I see sunlight but it does not reach here. It is present and it is everywhere but this space is always in shade.

I walk and I wonder and I feel the air is thick. The air is heavy and the smell of something familiar begins to reach down.

Much like the landscape the sky is hard and intense, and it is dull and colourless. It seems to press on down, or at least reach but it remains up there, formless, spread out. It is up there and it is heaving, but it remains motionless. It remains still and through it motion cracks and whips here and there. Through the sky there are brief bursts of power and the sound of crackling and rumbling. The sky is not choosing to announce itself; it is a byproduct of the sky.

People hurry and I keep on walking and that familiar smell grows a little stronger, but maybe it is yet to arrive. Maybe it is the anticipation of the smell bringing forth memories of its existence. I keep on walking and as I do more space forms around me. The press of the flow breaks up and no longer am I weaving my way around people for people are disappearing. The area grows empty as it grows darker.

Soon the first drops of rain fall and it’s not long before more join in. I walk through it and I think to myself. I wonder as to how everything would appear if the space was more open, if it was a vast emptiness, and if I’d cast a shadow or if I’d appear as one.

The sky is still and violent. It whips and cracks but the sound of the rain is peaceful, and all seems to hold in time. All seems to fade into a static state but all keeps on moving. The moment is frozen in time and as it falls behind a new one is created, but I keep walking and I smell the rain as it hits the hardened surface, and I lose myself in thoughts that I am not thinking about. I am detached from what I am thinking of and I look forward and all I have is a blankness. I stare through the rain and I stare through the structures and I keep on walking, and I look toward home, and I wonder if I will return there someday or if I’ll become lost in the crowds when they return.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 09:05:58

This is in part inspired by some of the lines from the bit of writing I did on “Wheels of Progress” yesterday. I had an idea of expanding on those lines and ended up with something pretty different to what I thought I’d get.

I don’t think this is necessarily good, but I like the imagery that comes forward. It also touches on a sense of longing for something I won’t have again that I’ve had here and there so there is a personal element to this but it doesn’t feel overbearing. Maybe a bit awkwardly included, but otherwise I’m fine with it.

The speed was a bit slow but I think it was for the better.

Written at home.

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A Poem About Trying to Write a Poem

This came out quickly but it had a lot of buildup to actually writing.
Getting words out still is a struggle at the moment but I feel I’m getting over the hump.

Anyway this isn’t good, but it’s sort of a restart, or something.
It gets the point across though, so that’s good, I think.

I hope you enjoy.

I feel I lack the words
to articulate something
that would be meaningful
in a poetic form

However, I will still try
to find something
even if it says little
or nothing at all

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Blind Idiot God: Wheels of Progress

One listen for this one.
There were parts where I was thinking about what I was writing and parts where I went more into stream-of-conscious and I think it shows, but that’s fine.

I think overall what I wrote covers the song well, but there are parts where it doesn’t cover it well enough.

Blind Idiot God’s “Wheels of Progress” is from their album Before Ever After.

I hope you enjoy.

Guitar and bass pummel away rapidly, slow down. Percussion charges on underneath. They pummel away rapidly, slow down. Once more but with a sense of changing direction, and once more familiar to how it started.

A moment of pause and guitar stretches before spreading. Percussion strikes and bass follows suit, and seemingly fans out in response, casting over and around the form. It’s almost a response and a reflection of sorts, and the striking of percussion through it all is precise, as are all the sounds and notes and pieces.

All move with each other and crash and roll and seemingly rise and move forward, shifting and changing whilst remaining steady.

Back to the guitar and bass playing out their moments in parts and back to the percussion playing and striking through it all. Sounds roar and move low, and it highlights moments along a vast expanse confined within a thin moment. It roars and bites and grinds and it looks inward, but it keeps moving.

Moving together, rising and crashing and rolling, moving forward, ringing out and stretching across as an expanse. Moving within each other and moving separate, keeping familiar but changing.

The sounds loosen and pulse and heave. They drag out and move back and forth in waves… in circulations. They come forward warm and low and they rumble and thunder on. Then they clear and the guitar and bass play out into this new space, seemingly alone and angular. Whispers of percussion here and there and a sense of sadness comes across. A sense of loss, perhaps.

More space comes in and after a few last notes a rumbling and strike from which percussion and bass rise up from. Things are picking up once more. Things are returning to a thundering shape across a clear landscape. There is heaving in the sound and in the sky and it cracks across through clear fuzz.

Once more everything builds up and guitar and bass pummel away, rapidly, slow down. Percussion charges on underneath and after enough passes the guitar stretches out alone and singular before it and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1303: File Transference

Currently waiting for a bunch of files to move so that I can go and do some other things. It’s going to take a while and I hope it won’t take too much of a while. A short while rather than a long while is preferred but I get no say in this.

Well, I could just walk away and do other things, but… yeah.

So now I know not what to do. Or I do know what to do. I know there are things that I should be doing and that there are things that I want to be doing and I know that, for the first time in a long time I’m typing whilst looking away from the keyboard. I haven’t done that in a while. Not sure why.

Just appreciating the view outside my window, though there is little to appreciate at the moment. Still, it’s nice and nice is nice and so… more yeah.

Yeah.

Anyway, I think that whilst I wait for this file transference to happen I must twiddle my thumbs and now it has finished whilst I’ve been writing this and so now I’m at more of a loss of what to do. I’ve started writing this and I can’t just stop in the middle of it, or I could but I won’t. I don’t want to scrap what I’ve written thus far as that would seem like a waste of time, or at least it would seem like a greater waste of time than it would to just continue, even though the latter is more wasteful than the other when I am kind of pressed for time.

So anyway, now that I have that out of the way I have to wonder as to what else I need to get out of the way. I need to work out what I do in this odd little void, this small pocket of space in which I’m filling with words rather than activity conducive to keeping my plants alive, or other things that need doing before the day of work commences. Probably because I like this bit of writing at this particular bit of time, but I’m not sure. I’m not sure as to where to go from here.

I wonder where my random throwing of things together went. I want to get back to that but I’m so far beyond all of that (and not the random mishmash of words and phrases to imply some sort of “weirdness” that I occasionally spew out) that I don’t know if I could ever go back and have it feel honest.

Well, I’ve nearly finished this so I haven’t spent too much time writing after the files finished transferring and that’s okay. I was hoping for more of a sense of multi-tasking, even if it was in a passive manner but that hasn’t happened and so now I’m just getting this done and then I’m off to do other things and I say that a lot.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:54:55

This one probably doesn’t read well, but it came out pretty easily and that’s what I like.
I didn’t have to spend much time actively thinking.

Written at home.

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